Writers: Eden Vansittart, Pia Gurner-Levy and Emma Robson
Directors: Pia Gurner-Levy and Emma Robson
Dastardly News is a comedy double bill featuring two short plays from Not A Flan Productions.
The more engaging of the two performances – The Dastardly Murder of the Chocolate Souffle – features a farcical whodunnit style story, at a 1950s country home. When there is a disappearance at a family funeral, the group try to piece together clues and their vastly different recollections of the evening to solve the mystery, but with such contrasting memories, it proves to be almost impossible. The creativity in this piece is intriguing, amalgamating a variety of different inspirations such as Spaghetti Westerns and musicals to convey each of their stories. While this idea is a really exciting, artistic way to explore each character’s flashback, there needs to be more energy within the execution, and less complacency within the script for it to flourish.
Old News in comparison is creatively barren, using tired clichés and generic stereotypes to push through the mundane storyline. Going backstage into a 1970s newsroom in a small Arizonian town, the team struggle to get through their evening news show with a series of bomb threats, untrained presenters, and animosity between ex-colleagues. The plot tumbles from one scene to another with no real narrative thread other than some brief mentions to ageism and sexism in the workplace. While the focus is to be satirical and political – again, it just isn’t quite pulled off. Additionally, the majority of the cast struggles so much with the execution of the accents that it’s confusing why they would set the show in USA, making it a cringeworthy watch as some of them muddle through. A combination of lacklustre writing and uninspired performances means that this opening show doesn’t hit the mark.
Both plays are written, directed and acted by the same group (Not A Flan Productions: Pia Gurner-Levy, Emma Robson and Eden Vansittart) – meaning that other than the accompanying actors (Alex Smith, Ollie Partington and Olivia MacDonald) there doesn’t seem to be an outside pair of eyes to tweak some of the misgivings or highlight the successful scenes. It’s all too easy to get enraptured with your own creations, which seems to be the case with Dastardly News. Too many of the scenes need a humour boost to transform them into the comedic double bill that is promised. At the moment there is too little emphasis on the funnier moments and too much repetition on the silly and unnecessary, without the extra nuance to turn it into a comedy of errors.
With a few too many stumbles on the script, terribly executed accents that shouldn’t have been attempted and half-jokes that don’t quite land, this ‘comedic’ double bill is more half-baked than hysterical. With two strong concepts, the foundations are there for an entertaining performance, but it needs an overhaul because as it stands, it’s dastardly disappointing.
Runs until 10 April 2022
The Reviews Hub Score
Dastardly Disappointing
Loved every moment of it and was thoroughly entertained by these absolutely brilliant plays, super impressed with the whole cast, convincing accents for me, and the transformation of the actors between the two plays showed great depth and versatility. There was rarely a smile not on my face and an abundance of laugh out loud bits. I enjoyed the snappy writing and brilliantly executed dialogue. The comic timing was spot on and my group of friends were left wanting more. The only unfortunate spots were a missed prop at the very beginning, and some moustache glue that came unstuck, but both were ably handled incharacter.
This was opening night and I expect these guys to go from strength to strength.
If you’re on the fence, just spend your £12 entrance fee and have a great night there.
First off, there was only one ‘writer’ on my programme, so not sure about the ‘enrapture’ point?! We caught this by accident when in the pub. It’s two 45-50 minute romps of jollity and light-hearted satire by a (sole) young writer. As a regular theatre-goer and infrequent reviewer I agree there is little nuance, but it was entertaining and good vfm. Sadly, the Stanton review misses the point entirely on the first play, which is set in the Deep South because it is a satire on the roots of Trumpian Fake news. This is a Trump heartland, with reference to deep-rooted right-wing evangelical Christianity, and casual sexism. It couldn’t really be set anywhere else. The second play was a variation of the country house murder whodunnit, vicar included, with a decent twist. If you want Chekov go the Almeida, but this was a fun evening (and a decent pint.)